JC Penet will present Working as a Professional Translator (published: April 2024)

Combining industry insights, the latest research in the field of translation studies and a career coaching approach, Working as a Professional Translator will help translator trainers take aspiring translators on an explorative journey of what it means to be a professional translator in the 21st century.

Written in an inclusive and accessible way, this new textbook contains three main parts that aim to follow the natural progression of an early career as a professional translator. Part 1 (‘Joining the profession’) encourages readers to reflect on the skills and qualifications they will need to join the profession (Chapter 1) and the career path(s) they may want to follow as translators (Chapter 2). It also draws their attention to the importance of developing relevant professional support networks (Chapter 3) and of researching the translation industry (Chapter 4) before joining the ranks of professional translators. Part 2 (‘On the job’) invites readers to discover key aspects of working as a professional translator in the 21st century, namely dealing with clients as intercultural experts (Chapter 5), managing sometimes complex translation projects (Chapter 6) as well as defining and ensuring translation quality for said projects (Chapter 7). Finally, Part 3 (‘Continuing to grow as a professional translator’) encourages readers to adopt a longer-term view of their work by exploring market opportunities (Chapter 8) and by engaging with the concept of self-care (Chapter 9) in order to ensure the job remains sustainable over time.

Working as a Professional Translator will be a great resource for instructors with students on Translation Studies programmes that are new to translation as a profession. The design of the textbook should make it easy to use on a typical one-semester module introducing students to this important topic. Inspired by career coaching, each chapter of this hands-on guide opens with key questions that budding translators might typically ask themselves and encourages them to reflect on their relevance for their own situation through regular discussion points and ‘Topics for discussion and assignments’.

Corrine Tachtiris will present Translation and Race (published: February 2024).

Translation and Race brings together translation studies with critical race studies for a long-overdue reckoning with race and racism in translation theory and practice. This book explores the "unbearable whiteness of translation" in the West that excludes scholars and translators of color from the field and also upholds racial inequities more broadly. Outlining relevant concepts from critical race studies, Translation and Race demonstrates how norms of translation theory and practice in the West actually derive from ideas rooted in white supremacy and other forms of racism. Chapters explore translation’s role in historical processes of racialization, racial capitalism and intellectual property, identity politics and Black translation praxis, the globalization of critical race studies, and ethical strategies for translating racist discourse. Beyond attempts to diversify the field of translation studies and the literary translation profession, this book ultimately calls for a radical transformation of translation theory and practice.

María Fernández-Parra will present Translation Tools and Technologies, by Andrew Rothwell, Joss Moorkens, María Fernández-Parra, Joanna Drugan and Frank Austermuehl (published: April 2023).

To trainee translators and established professionals alike, the range of tools and technologies now available, and the speed with which they change, can seem bewildering. This state-of-the-art, copiously illustrated textbook offers a straightforward and practical guide to translation tools and technologies.

Demystifying the workings of computer-assisted translation (CAT) and machine translation (MT) technologies, Translation Tools and Technologies offers clear step-by-step guidance on how to choose suitable tools (free or commercial) for the task in hand and quickly get up to speed with them, using examples from a wide range of languages. Translator trainers will also find it invaluable when constructing or updating their courses. This unique book covers many topics in addition to text translation. These include the history of the technologies, project management, terminology research and corpora, audiovisual translation, website, software and games localisation, and quality assurance. Professional workflows are at the heart of the narrative, and due consideration is also given to the legal and ethical questions arising from the reuse of translation data.

With targeted suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter to guide users in deepening their knowledge, and supported by additional activities and suggestions on the Routledge online portal, this is the essential textbook for all courses in translation and technology within translation studies and translator training.

Mariusz Marczak will present Telecollaboration in Translator Education: Implementing Telecollaborative Learning Modes in Translation Courses (published: November 2023).

This volume comprehensively tackles telecollaboration as a learning mode useful in educating future-proof language mediators with a range of indispensible competences, who will not only find employment in the ever-changing and ever-expanding LSP job market but also successfully negotiate their professional advancement in the years to come.

Addressed to TS students and researchers, particularly those with an interest in translator education and translation technology, the book explores contemporary translator education, with its distinctive challenges and affordances, as well as future directions. It provides an overview of telecollaboration, its rise in prominence in today’s globalised, technology-driven world, and its impact on practices in professional translation and translator education.

The volume highlights basic design types and assessment modes, their use in achieving competence-based learning outcomes, drawing on examples from seven telecollaboration projects. In incorporating real-life research, the book draws readers’ attention not only to the practical workings of different projects types but also potential opportunities for educators to diversify and optimize their instructional practices.

Today higher education (HE) faces new challenges, such as incorporating consideration of diversity and inclusion into its operations. Such challenges, many of which are part of strategic institutional plans, offer teachers an opportunity to introduce new practices in the classroom. This pedagogical project introduces language students to the task of audio description (AD) –that is, making visual content available to blind and visually impaired people by verbal means. AD therefore allows blind or partially blind people to access the visual images at theatre plays, television programmes, films, works of art, etc. This pedagogical project was first implemented in the School of Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University in 2018/2019. The idea, originally, was to integrate accessibility in the curriculum of final year foreign language (FL) learners, some of whom are also translation trainees, and use it as a tool to enhance the students’ communicative awareness as well as boosting a more comprehensive set of skills. In consecutive years, the development of this project has also allowed students to advance their role as mediators while improving communication in the FL. For that purpose, the team of teachers developed a framework for evaluating the learning that might derive from such an activity in the context of FL study, and then use this framework to evaluate a sequence of the proposed AD tasks undertaken with Irish learners of Spanish. The tasks provided opportunities for the students to reflect on the communication needs of blind and partially blind people and to understand how these could be addressed effectively in AD. During the pedagogic intervention, which can be adapted to future projects, students work on a number of tasks playing various roles as they progress: they research the presence of AD in Irish television and discuss its (in)visibility, they act either as a blind person or non-blind person while practising AD in both the L1 (English) and the FL (Spanish), and, they then produce an AD in the FL and record the final version emulating a professional exercise. The pedagogic approach is inherently multidisciplinary and aimed to help learners become self-reflecting agents and mediators in their L1 and FL.

Lucía Pintado Gutiérrez (Dublin City University) and Gloria Torralba Miralles (Universitat Jaume I)

Translation as Co-creation (TCC) is an interdisciplinary, collaborative model of translation research and practice that places the emphasis on the role of knowledge exchange and critical creative approaches in a climate where AI is dominating discussions. The model brings together staff and students from Translation Studies and Modern Languages with others across schools and faculties and explores translation as a multi-layered, multifaceted process that can be enhanced by participation and input from multiple disciplines. In this model, students and staff work collaboratively as language, subject and translation advisors to engage in original research and produce a publishable piece of translation. This presentation will offer an overview of two TCC workshops held at Newcastle University. In the first, Textured Translations, ‘subject-expert’ students from the School of English worked alongside Translation Studies students to produce a translation of Argentinian author Cesar Aira’s prologue to his own translation of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline (forthcoming Latin American Review 2024). The second, Layers of Language explored questions of intercultural literacies, the preservation of language diversity, and multilingualism as social justice to translate of a set of digital teaching materials published by Linguapax entitled Cinema and Language Diversity. The workshop involved students from across a range of disciplines to produce a translation of a booklet featuring ten renowned international films that allowed them to engage with issues related to linguistic diversity and the danger that local languages face in contexts of linguistic colonialism. This presentation will reflect on the methodology behind TCC, the process and the outcome of the workshops, and reflect on how this can be developed moving forwards.

Jennifer Arnold (Newcastle University) and Philippa Page (Newcastle University)

Translation is a highly complex activity that is central to virtually any (inter)cultural exchange. As such, it has always relied on metaphorical conceptualisations to make sense of the processes it is based upon and of the outcomes it produces and their relationship to their author and their intended environment. This paper looks at the process and the product of translation from a conceptual point of view and explores the different implications elicited by different metaphor-based framings. Particularly, it analyses linguistic conceptualisations of translation and observes that they have traditionally focused on a dichotomic perspective representing translation as the movement of words/text from one language to another. In this sense, these theories of translation may be said to revolve around a conventional metaphor putting the two domains of the source and target language/text in mutual opposition. This paper argues that conventional metaphors of translation based on dichotomies and binary oppositions emphasise aspects that fail to grasp and describe the complexity involved in translation-related activities and that living metaphors are needed to underline aspects that are pivotal for the advancement of the discipline and its professional practice. Starting from a few attempts that have been made in this direction – including the notion of translation as flow (Cronin), translation as performance (Cheetham, Robinson), translation as event (Agnetta and Cercel) – this paper proposes the conceptualisation of translation as action as a framing model putting an emphasis on the translation features that most need to be brought to light, such as its importance in the real world, its ethical and behavioural implications, the variety of possible options and interactions it involves.

Ilaria Rizzato (University of Genoa)

There is still a huge gap between the academic part of our training and the reality of launching ourselves into the world of work.

As an independent mentor who is also a practising interpreter and translator of 20 years, I attempt to bridge this gap by helping my mentees overcome their initial stage fright when they find themselves upstream without a paddle. I take interpreters to shadow me in court and help them and translators save time by pointing them in the right direction for networking, membership of professional organisations and relevant CPD. Mentoring includes helping them to avoid potential problems and unreasonable working conditions and even certain clients and colleagues who may not be good matches for them.

I also supplement any business skills training they may have had at college because it is generally not sufficient. I help them to draft their business documents such as their terms and conditions as well as role play negotiating the latter with future clients.

Last but not least I spend a lot of time with them on realistic rate setting, client credit checking and how to deal with late and non-payers.

My concern is that too often that college does not adequately prepare students for the real world by launching them with great qualifications but without the know-how to survive in an increasingly challenging market with AI and rate cuts both being increasing threats.

Together with joined-up colleagues from academia and practising language professionals, we can do much more for these students.

Sue E Leschen (Avocate Legal and Business French Interpreting and Translation Services Ltd)

Technological advancements in the translation profession, coupled with the increasing commodification of higher education (see Collini, 2017), have led to demand for a more professional focus in translator training in recent years. In response, there has been an increase in the situated learning opportunities made available to students (see, for instance, González-Davies & Enríquez-Raído, 2016; Korda, 2023; Li, 2023; Neves, 2022). Professional, instrumental and service provision skills have also gained a wider presence in the literature, including translation competence models such as the ones drafted by PACTE (Hurtado Albir, 2017) and the Directorate-General for Translation (EMT Expert Group, 2017). In addition, the recent publication of Routledge textbooks on professional translation and project management (e.g. Penet, 2024; Walker, 2023) has placed greater emphasis on the need to strengthen links between academia and industry practice.

In this rapid-fire presentation, we offer an overview of two modules offered to postgraduate translation students at the UCL Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS). The first of these modules, “Translation Project”, involves students working with ‘real’ clients to gain translation experience under the guidance of CenTraS staff and professional mentors. In the second module, “Professional Skills for Translators”, students complete practical activities in which they act as freelancers and LSP employees. Both modules are designed to prepare students for their future careers in the language services industry and keep them informed of industry practices through direct contact with freelancers, LSPs and direct clients (see de Céspedes, 2020). These modules are often complemented with other extracurricular initiatives at UCL, such as ChangeMakers projects (e.g. Bolaños-García-Escribano 2023) as well as dedicated career fairs for translation graduates (CenTraS’ Inside the Translation Industry).

We are keen to hear from colleagues at other institutions about similar initiatives that aim to create stronger links between teaching and research and industry practice. We would aim to make our presentation as interactive as possible and, ultimately, collectively brainstorm about how we can better prepare our students for the world of work.

Olivia Cockburn (UCL), Alejandro Bolaños (UCL), and Caiwen Wang (UCL)

It is often underlined that translators do not work in a vacuum. Particularly in today’s higly globalised and technologised world, they usually function in settings involving complex interactions with multiple stakeholders in the language service provision process (cf. European Commission, 2021; Marczak, 2024; Penet, 2024). However, the same can also be said about Translation Studies scholars and translator educators, who can now benefit from the affordances created by increased mobility and internet connectivity. Close collaboration, augmented by professional organisations, permits the free exchange of theoretical ideas, accounts of experience as well as hands-on pedagogical solutions and joint research.

In this presentation, President of the Consortium for Translation Education Research (CTER) will look into ways in which translator educators from the Association of Programmes in Translation and Interpreting Studies (APTIS) and their colleagues from the sister organisation CTER, headquartered outside the United Kingdom, could be brought close together to tighten professional and research links across the Channel in the post-Brexit era.

Mariusz Marczak (Jagiellonian University)

This presentation will address the challenges posed by small student cohorts with varied language combinations and A languages other than English in translation and interpreting or interpreting-only programmes. Overreliance on fees from overseas students at a time of geopolitical stability, post-Brexit decrease of EU students and a decline in languages uptake across educational levels are having a significant impact on language degrees and translation and interpreting programmes in the UK. Cohorts are increasingly small and heterogenous regarding language combinations and competencies in an environment that requires adjusting to rapid changes in the industry.

The challenges above require creative and flexible pedagogical approaches to ensure sustainability of interpreter training programmes while assuring academic quality. How can this be achieved in a pedagogically sound and ethical way?

The following questions and potential responses to such questions will be addressed to prompt responses and discussion throughout the unconference:

- How can the various factors mentioned above be addressed in a way that is ethical, balanced and nuanced?

- Can technology integration in teaching, speech creation and practice be of help?

- How can increased collaboration among trainers with different, and often colourful, language combinations be put to the service of innovation?

Eloísa Monteoliva García (University of York)

What is the place of feminist translation on the twenty-first-century university curriculum? Why and how would we focus explicitly on teaching 'feminist' translation (rather than e.g. queer translation or gender-inclusive translation)? Feminist translation is often associated with the so-called Canadian school which emerged in the 1970s-1990s, and works from this period by Sherry Simon, Luise von Flotow and others have remained classic texts on the subject in Translation Studies. However, developments in gender and queer theory have made it difficult to articulate what feminist approaches might look like in the present-day. In this roundtable, we hope to initiate a discussion about how feminist translation is currently taught on undergraduate and postgraduate translation programmes in the UK, including the challenges of teaching feminist translation in a multilingual classroom with students from different backgrounds and with sometimes very diverse language-pairs. Our focus is explicitly on teaching feminist translation as a practical exercise, rather than feminist theory/feminist translation theory, and we are specifically interested in the following questions:

• How do we teach feminist translation practice? What examples of textual and extra-textual strategies do we present to students?

• What does a feminist translation look like? How is it different from a gender-inclusive or queer translation?

• How do we assess feminist translations?

The three panellists will each present a short opening statement based on their teaching experiences and we will open the floor to discussion. The roundtable will contribute to the conference theme of ‘sharing good practices’.

The roundtable is linked to the AHRC-funded ‘Feminist Translation Network’ project (PI Brown, CI Castro, with Saldanha on the Steering Committee), which runs from 1 May 2024-31 December 2025 and explores what feminist translation means in practice in the twenty-first century, focusing on contemporary literary translation in English.

Hilary Brown (University of Birmingham)

Olga Castro (University of Warwick/Universitat Autònoma Barcelona)

Gabriela Saldanha (University of Oslo)

Despite the global language services industry being forecast to grow to $84.9bn by 2026 (Nimdzi 2022), there are growing concerns about the long-term sustainability of the freelance translation profession, especially in the UK. Recent industry data and academic research have drawn attention to an array of issues, especially in light of technological developments (cf. Moorkens & Rocchi 2021, Lambert & Walker 2022, Fırat, Gough, & Moorkens 2024, Zajdel, Schrijver, & Jankowska 2024), and there are increasing concerns over human capital retention.

A number of these worrying trends were concretised in our BA-funded research project ‘Chasing Status: The Sustainability of the Freelance Translation Profession in the UK', with results from our large-scale survey of professional translators and focus groups with members of regional networks of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting crystallising concerns. Many participants reported low (and declining) pay and issues with working conditions, wellbeing, industry practices, and status, and reflected on a rather bleak outlook. Indeed, many respondents were concerned about the longer-term health (and indeed existence) of the translation profession and would be unlikely to recommend it to aspiring translators.

This gives considerable cause for concern to and poses challenges for translator trainers. For instance:

• How do we frame industry challenges to (current and prospective) students in a fair, transparent manner, while also balancing the ongoing need to recruit students in a context of declining numbers?

• How can we best prepare our students for a career in translation today?

• How can we seek to tackle these worrying trends and safeguard the long-term sustainability of the profession (and of our programmes)?

In this session, we will use key data from our empirical work to contextualise the current situation and provide a series of starting points to allow participants to delve into these challenging, yet vital, questions.

Joseph Lambert (Cardiff University)

JC Penet (Newcastle University)

Callum Walker (University of Leeds)

Join us for an engaging roundtable discussion on the evolving landscape of media accessibility (MA). As the world approaches the halfway mark towards the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set for 2030, the inclusion of persons with disabilities has never been more critical. The combined efforts of persons with disabilities, civil society, and government partners are driving significant changes across various sectors, highlighting the importance of collaboration in achieving these goals.

In this session, we will delve into the latest developments and future directions in media accessibility, translation and interpreting, focusing on education and training. Key areas will cover:

● Higher Education: Exploring current practices in training translators and interpreters specifically for media accessibility. Understanding how academic institutions are incorporating MA content into their curricula, from undergraduate to postgraduate levels.

● Training and pedagogy: Examining effective training practices, pedagogical principles, and methodologies for media accessibility. Gain insights into the challenges faced and lessons learned in the education sector.

● Collaborative efforts: Discussing the importance of partnerships and collaboration in media accessibility training. Learning about successful collaborations that have paved the way for more inclusive and accessible audiovisual products.

We will also touch on the significant strides made in technological advancements that facilitate MA services, such as audio description, live subtitling, intralingual theatre captions, sign language interpreting, and more. Additionally, we will consider the growing demand for professionalisation in this field and its implications for the future.

Join us to share your experiences, learn from others, and contribute to the ongoing dialogue on media accessibility. Together, we can make efforts/work to ensure everyone has full and equal access to the rich tapestry of audiovisual media.

This round table is not only a platform for discussion but also a call to action. Let’s work together to make the world more accessible, inclusive, and enjoyable for all.

Your insights and participation are crucial to advancing the cause of media accessibility. We look forward to a lively and productive discussion!

Lucía Pintado Gutiérrez (DCU)

Sharon Black (UEA)

Alejandro Bolaños García-Escribano (UCL)

Xi Wang (University of Bristol)

The purpose of this roundtable panel is to challenge the prevailing Eurocentric approach to translation education and to explore the possibility of a more inclusive curriculum that reflects the global nature of the profession. While academia calls for decolonising translation theories and values research diversity (van Doorslaer and Naaijkens 2023), there is less reflection on teaching and learning. Despite recent scholars' attempts to challenge the homogeneity of HE translation education (Oaknin, García-Escribano and Navarrete 2024), such efforts are relatively few and far between. The issue, therefore, still requires exploration. Reliance on the European Master’s in Translation Competence Framework (2022) tends to serve to undermine one of the key tenets of Translation Studies – that is, the recognition of cultural difference, especially since most international students have less chance to work in the European language industry after they graduate. In this regard, our panel seeks to explore a more inclusive and diverse approach to translation education that recognises the complexity of understanding translation and navigates the gap between students' learning experience and demands of the language sector.

Recent research in education has begun to acknowledge the need to shift from viewing international students through a transactional and economic lens to one that recognises their diverse human experiences and contributions (Tran and Hoang 2024). Translation education, therefore, is urged to consider more closely its responsibility for preparing HE students for the global market and to reflect and accommodate more meaningfully the realities of their lived experience. By integrating these concerns, our panel proposal aims to spark dialogue on how HE translation education can be re-imagined to empower international students, value their unique perspectives, and promote an internationalised environment within the Translation and Interpreting Studies community in Europe.

Possible subtopics include but are not limited to:

1. How can we (re-)construct conceptual understandings of translation pedagogy in HE?

2. How can HE translation education programmes be (re-)designed and (re-)structured to ensure the inclusion of global perspectives?

3. How can technology facilitate the internationalisation of HE translation education?

4. How can the translation industry and academia collaborate to create educational programmes that meet the evolving needs of the global translation market?

The panellists, Dr Lisha Xu, Dr Ye Tian, and Dr Rui Wang all have experience teaching in both Chinese and British HE Institutions. They will take China-Britain differences as an example to reflect on the above-listed questions.

Lisha Xu (University of Edinburgh)

Ye Tian (Durham University)

Rui Wang (North China Electric Power University)

As programmes in humanities are increasingly being squeezed out of universities, it is more vital than ever to make sure that our institutions can see and understand the work that we do, and the value that we bring to the institution. This roundtable focuses not so much on teaching translation and interpreting to our students as teaching the importance of translation and interpreting programmes to our universities. As we are often part of other departments, such as modern languages or linguistics, and our research is often evaluated as part of much broader units of assessment, it’s crucial to make sure that not only do we keep up in terms of research, but that our programmes themselves are visible and legible across the university. In this roundtable, we’ll talk about strategies and ideas for making ourselves and our work more visible to senior leadership, colleagues in other departments, researchers more broadly, and the public in general. We invite participants to share information about the kinds of tools they have used, events they have run, partners they have enlisted. How can we keep our programmes enough in view that we don’t find ourselves in scope?

Anna Strowe (University of Manchester)

JC Penet (Newcastle University)

Rebecca Tipton (University of Manchester)

Christophe Fricker (University of Bristol)

Ankita Tibrewal (De Montfort University)

Canadian Schools of translation and translation programs are currently contending with multifaceted challenges, from adequately addressing a rapidly shifting online landscape (e.g. evolving social platforms), to artificial intelligence (AI) gaining ground, to lower student enrollment. In this roundtable, we share our respective in-class and online experiences integrating internet culture, gaming culture, and new(er) technologies in our teaching and training to open a dialogue among presenters and participants to identify shared and best training/teaching practices that address some of these challenges.

Renée Desjardins argues that many of our students are active Internet users and avid online creators. Incidentally, many companies and brands strategically produce online content that requires complex and holistic translation solutions, yet some Canadian translation programs continue to focus on approaches that still put grammar and syntax at the heart of the equation, abstracting this online context. If social media is a viable translation market, should we not make social media literacy an integral part of translation training? What might be the most effective way of doing so?

Émilie Gobeil-Roberge will explore neural machine translation and its influence on translation practices and education, as well as the broader AI revolution and its associated hype. Should these tools be integrated into curricula? Or, should these tools be banned altogether? Is it feasible to ban such widespread technology? Relatedly, how can educators, who may be grappling with a rapidly evolving technological landscape, find the time and resources needed to get the necessary training?

Finally, Valérie Florentin will discuss how insights from gaming and ludology can inform translator training. Indeed, gaming culture is often abstracted from translator training though it is arguably essential to effective localization. A case can also be made for gamifying some aspects of education and training as this might help with student recruitment and retention more broadly. New trends emerging from the intersection of gaming, gaming culture, ludology, and pedagogy are at the heart of this part of the panel.

We know that the online world moves rapidly and it can be difficult as educators with many professional obligations to stay current: this is why we also propose a more horizontal and collaborative approach to translation training that decentres faculty and trainers to establish a more equitable rapport with students. We also suggest more resource-sharing among colleagues beyond traditional knowledge-sharing contexts (e.g. traditional academic conferences).

Renée Desjardins (Université de Saint-Boniface)

Valérie Florentin (York University)

Émilie Gobeil-Roberge (Université Laval)